Day 2
1. Linux Directory Structure:
Most commonly used top-level directories:
/ “Root”, the top of the file system hierarchy
/bin Binaries and other executable programs
/etc System configuration files
/home Home directory (various user files)
/opt Optional or third party software
/tmp Temporary space, typically cleared on reboot
/usr User related programs, libraries, and docs.
/var Variable data, most notably log files
Applications that are not shipped with the OS are typically installed in:
/usr/local/
/opt
Comprehensive Directory Listing
/boot Files needed to boot the operating system.
/cdrom Mount point for CD-ROMs.
/cgroup Control Groups hierarchy.
/dev Device files, typically controlled by the operating system and the system administrators.
/etc System configuration files.
/export Shared file systems.
/home Home directories.
/lib System Libraries.
/lib64 System Libraries, 64 bit.
/lost+found Used by the file system to store recovered files after a file system check has been performed.
/media Some Linux OS might use to mount removable media like CD-ROMs.
/mnt Used to mount external file systems.
/opt Optional or third party software.
/proc Provides info about running processes.
/root The home directory for the root account.
/sbin System administration binaries.
/selinux Used to display information about SELinux.
/usr/bin Binaries and other executable programs.
/usr/lib Libraries.
/usr/local Locally installed software that is not part of the base operating system.
/usr/sbin System administration binaries.
/var Variable data, most notably log files.
/var/log Log files.
Some Linux OS might use:
/srv Contains data which is served by the system.
/srv/www Web server files.
/srv/ftp FTP files.
/sys Used to display and sometimes configure the devices known to the Linux kernel.
Application directory structures:
Often install in:
/usr/local/programname
/usr/local/programname/bin
/usr/local/programname/etc
/usr/local/programname/lib
/usr/local/programname/log
Application installed in /opt
/opt/programname
/opt/programname/bin
/opt/programname/etc
/opt/programname/lib
/opt/programname/log
Examples of specific companies:
/opt/companyname
/opt/companyname/bin
/opt/companyname/etc
/opt/google
/opt/google/crhome
/opt/google/earth
Variation applications sometimes follow:
/etc/opt/programname
/opt/programname/bin
/opt/programname/lib
/var/opt/programname
Applications without given directory structure, so they are installed in a shared manner:
/usr/local/bin/programname
/usr/local/etc/programname.conf
/usr/local/lib/libprogramname.so
2. What is the Shell?
– The default interface to Linux
– A program that accepts your commands and executes those commands
– Also called a command-line interpreter
Command Line Interface (CLI)
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
The prompt:
[philipp@linuxsvr ~]$ Username and the Linux system I’m connected to. The dollar sign tells me that I am a normal user.
[philipp@linuxsvr ~]# The pound sign typically tells me that I am a superuser or the root account (administrator in a windows system).
Example prompts:
philipp@linuxsvr $
[philipp@linuxsvr /tmp]$
linuxsvr:/home/philipp>
philipp@linuxsvr:~>
[16:45:51 linuxsvr ~]$
$
%
>
Tilde Expansion:
~philipp = /home/philipp
~pat = /home/pat
~root = /root
~ftp = /srv/ftp
3. Basic Linux Commands
ls – Lists directory contents.
ls -l – Long list of directory contents.
cd – Changes the current directory.
cd without any arguments takes you to your home directory.
pwd – Displays the present working directory.
cat – Concatenates and displays files.
echo – Displays arguments to the screen.
echo $PATH
man – Displays the online manual.
man ls – To learn more about the command: ls
Type q to exit the manual.
exit – Exits the shell or your current session.
clear – Clears the screen.
which command:
which – Locate a command.
which cat
which tac – Display content of file in reverse order.
--help command:
--help – Add to a command to get help.
-h – ls -h i.e.
man document navigation:
Enter key – Moves down line by line.
Space bar – Moves down an entire paoge.
Lower case ‘g’ key – Move to the top of the screen.
Capital ‘G’ key – Move to the bottom of the screen.
Lower case ‘q’ key – To exit/quit.
If you are not sure which command to use, you can search through the manual page using this command: man -k SEARCH_TERM.
For example: man -k calendar.
Directories:
. – This directory.
.. – The parent directory.
cd - – Change to the previous directory.
/ – Directory seperator (forward slash).
echo $OLDPWD – Shows directory we have been previously in.
./cat – Execute something in current directory, i.e. cat (instead of the $PATH directory).
mkdir [-p] directory – Create a directory.
rmdir [-p] directory – Remove a empty directory.
rm -rf directory – Recursively removes everything in and below that directory. (Be careful, using rm -rf removes are not undoable!)
The part of the command in square brackets is optional.
[-p] – Parents, for example:
mkdir -p 1 directory1/directory2/directory3
The ls command:
ls -l – Detailed list of directory content.
Example details displayed:
Permission: -rw-rw-r--
Number of links: 1
Owner name: philipp
Group name: users
Number of bytes in the file: 10400
Last modification time: Sep 27 08:52
File name: sales.data
Hidden files are not displayed using ls, you need to use ls -a. Hidden files begin with a dot i.e.: .mydata.
Combine the ls command with command line arguments, for example ls to list files with -l to display a long list, and -a for all files, including hidden.
ls -l -a can also be written as ls -la
Use ls -F to reveal file types.
or ls -lF for a long listing format.
For example, ending with:
/ – A directory.
@ – A link (symbolic link to file).
* – An executable.
ls -t – List files by time.
ls -r – Reverse order.
ls -latr – Long listing including all files reverse sorted by time.
ls -R – Lists files recursively, in the current directory and any sub-directory below that.
ls -d – Only list directory names, not their content.
ls --color – Colorize the output.
Combination of -F and --color: ls -F --color
If there is a file with a space (try to avoid this), you can use double or single quotes to execute a command: ls -l "my notes.txt"
The tree command:
Similar to ls -R, but creates visual output:
tree -d – List directories only.
tree -C – Colorize output.
Combine -d and -C: tree -Cd
